• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a 24-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray or butter.

Make the Dough

• Chop the pecans using a food processor, nut grinder, or with a knife. Reserve 1/4 cup and finely chop these pecans for the dough. Set aside.
• Using an electric mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until fully blended. Add the flour and 1/4 cup of finely ground pecans.
• Shape the dough into 1-inch balls (a cookie scoop is helpful here) and place them into the mini muffin cups. Use a tamper to press the dough evenly into the bottoms and up the sides of each cup. You can also easily do this with your fingers.

Make the Filling

• Whisk the egg, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt in a small bowl. I like to do this in a glass measure for ease in pouring.
• Into each muffin cup, add 1 teaspoon of chopped nuts over the unbaked dough.
• Pour the filling over the nuts in each pastry, taking care not to overfill.
• Bake for 20 to 24 minutes, or until the tassies are lightly golden in color. Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for 3 minutes. Then remove the tassies from the cups and transfer to a wire rack to cool.